The Masterpiece (The shadow I cast Book 1)

by Chiemeka Nicely

  “So, what did you do to end up in here?” She looks at me and taps at the table. I didn’t think she would reply, but still, I had to try. She shrugs her shoulders. I exhale and tap on the table with my chipped nails. It doesn’t take much for me to get bored. When I’m not training, I am hanging out with my family, painting or doing something creative. But here the possibilities are minimal. Through my off-beat tapping, the girl decides to get creative. Her small finger outlines her name in her food. Myah.

  “That’s a lovely name.” She smiles. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the silver-haired girl approach me again. What did I do to deserve her attention? Maybe it is my radiant aura. She makes a show of circling me before she speaks.

  “You know you’re going to have to cut your hair.” She fingers my plaits. My neck stiffens. No one has ever outrightly touched my hair without asking first. She makes me feel like a puppet on strings.

  “By the looks of yours, I’d say I’m quite fine.” It’s nothing a little flame can’t handle.

  “Not nearly enough, unless you want them to be used as reins on the battlefield.”

  I retaliate with a smirk. “I much prefer blades, if I ever make it out there.”

  “Oh, you will, I’ll make sure of it.” She tugs on my hair once more, and I couldn’t restrain myself any longer. In one move, I spin around and grab her hair hauling it to the side. The light above swoons over her cheek. She laughs and licks her lips.

  “Missy has a temper. You might want to save that for the battlefield.” I clench my jaw and wedge my nails into her scalp. The pain doesn’t seem to bother her. This is to no surprise. She is the female joker after all. Paint her lips red and dye her hair green and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Tamari appears out of nowhere and separates us.

  “You know the rules. Save it for the battlefield.” This makes no sense. How is it they can murder on the battlefield, yet fighting indoors is prohibited?

  She gives me a final look, the savagery returning to her eyes. She wants the kill, and I am on her list. If things go her way, I’ll be her next opponent.

  “Embrace the God within you.”

  7

  The Blue Flame

  {Calista}

  When my Blue Flame first manifested, at the age of 12, I witnessed the fear in father’s eyes as well as my peers. With just a huff or an emotional meltdown I could have burnt our training room down. Not even water could stamp out my flames. The Blue Flame is more than energy, it’s like a whole new life force that balances my own. If not for my mother, Empress Nubia’s training and patience I probably wouldn’t have it under control.

  Whenever I walked into the training room, my peers would shy away from me. No one wanted to work with me for fear of getting injured. But I found it ironic, one of the teachings of the Supreme Clan is to fear nothing. My father once pushed me off a cliff to teach me to channel my fear. I was supposed to hit the water below but I ended up breaking my leg and nearly drowned. Looking back, they were cowards and in some ways weren’t worthy of becoming a Supreme Warrior. Where some hated it, others embraced it. Children in the villages would always welcome me and ask me to perform tricks. I knew that wasn’t the purpose of my flame, but I also wanted to put a smile on their faces. So, I created a few harmless fireworks and established stars and animals that would perform tricks of their own. The children were always happy to spend time with me, even if some of their parents were against the Blue Flame.

  To the majority, the Blue Flame was a reminder of the spirituality they once supported and lived by. So, when they saw me walking amongst them, the Blue Flame lapping at my feet, they would rush back inside their huts or curse. For a while, it really hurt me, especially when I knew absolutely nothing about the extent of my energy and where it originated from. But after a while, I stopped thinking about how others viewed it and looked within to find the answers I sought. I soon enough realised its beauty and that it was nothing to fear. Across our history, there have been Kings, Queens, Princesses and Princes who have carried the flame, some killed and banished for being a bearer, others glorified it as it was the epitome of our God-like nature. It represents our Supreme Consciousness from which we have forgotten who we are.

  When the time came mother enlightened me about a Legend that spoke of the Blue Flame combining with Kundalini: the awakening of Neter. The legend of Bluka.

  Mother sat me down in her sacred space, her garden, plants of all sizes surrounding us, the sun extending its embrace running its fingers through her waist-length thick locks. She burned some incense and sage and gently guided it around us. She set out a range of crystals in front of us and instructed me to cross my legs, exhale and inhale. We meditated, and she began to tell me of the legend.

  The legend of Bluka spoke of the first men and women who attained spiritual enlightenment and unlocked their Godly, Neter nature. They became one with the Supreme and became protectors of the land working alongside Mother nature and the Universe. It speaks of a time where everyone is regal, where the Dynasties didn’t exist, where there was balance. When they assimilated their purpose after finding and understanding self, they created the Dynastic emblem. The Cobra symbolised hidden wisdom as well as protector of royalty. When threatened, the Cobra would stand tall extend its hood and protect its home and itself. By nature, it is venomous and hypnotic. The Cobra also represents fertility and the creative life force. Life would continuously seek to evolve and create offspring that would continue the cycle of Ma’at’s virtues, as well as take on some of the roles of scholars, warriors, nurturers and merchants. The Lion symbolises strength, courage and leadership and enhanced the masculine energy and nurtured the feminine one.

  Bluka in its simplest form is the universal consciousness collected within the hueman vessel. It is sectioned off into two parts. The Blue Flame, when fused with kundalini, would ensure balance within the vessel the Neter spirit inhabited as well as be a reflection of how Mother nature should be. But for this to be a permanent state the seven energy points of the human body had to be unblocked. The masculine and feminine energies needed to be able to flow through the body as one. In unity. When this occurred the first men and women became Deities that performed specific roles as they watched over their people. These Deities were Ori the spiritual and intuitive one; Ogun the warrior God of iron, labour, politics, sacrifice and technology; Oshun the Goddess of beauty, love, femininity, fertility and divinity of rivers; Ibeji the sacred twins, male and female, of youth and vitality; Yemoja mother deity of mankind and God of the sea; Ra God of the sun. But there are many others.

  Mother believed the Legend to be real, she also thought I could awaken Bluka. All I needed to do was do for self and embrace truth rather than ignore it. Ignorance wiped from the slate as I remember who I was supposed to be before father made me into who he thought I should be.

  I needed to love myself.

  “Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing”

  - Oscar Wilde

  8

  Their way of life

  {Calista}

  Every day I witness a new way life can be taken. Nothing beats the fight to the death, or as I like to call it, the savage games. When they let us out of our cages, I watch life from a new perspective. I’ve never considered how grateful I should be, since I was blessed with a life that is luxurious in every way from the clothes on my back, the food in my stomach to the loving community I grew up in. In some way, I know the price of everything and the value of nothing. I know my father’s approval came at a price: determination and discipline but the true value of such a thing is lost on me. I thought I knew pain from the way he made sure his approval was unattainable, but as I can see pain and I was never best friends, at least not in comparison to the people before me.

  In Aelburn, my people rarely ever suffered, or maybe I was just shielded from the horrors of life. Either way, the atmosphere was always pleasant with a few ignorant fools who couldn’t settle their anger
and accept they were wrong. Not to mention if their ego and pride were attacked they’d act like children, shouting and cussing over the simplest of things. Some would even gravitate to violence, to which members of the Supreme Clan would intervene. There is a zero-tolerance policy in our community, you disobey the regal family and disrespect the laws, you were cast out after one single warning. There was not to be any blood spilt without justifiable cause. If you so much as breathed a word of hatred and disloyalty father would automatically know. He had eyes everywhere. It was a small price to pay for him extending his hand to ensure they lived stress-free without having to be concerned with whether they would live to eat and see another day.

  Here, my heart aches to help them. For once, since I arrived, I am not thinking only of myself. Even the silver-haired girl I start to pity. I see the anger in her eyes and come close to understanding why she loves the savage games so much. It is her way of escaping this world- being loud and ruthless when she was unable to do so previously, when her traumatic moment occurred. She may have a streak of evil and a coldness to her character, but underneath it all, she is just trying to survive. The scars I see pattern her back makes me want to find whoever did it and strangle them for mutilating her skin, damaging her in ways her mind and soul could not comprehend.

  What gives them the right to do this?

  It looks like she had been whiplashed several times none stop, I can still see the blood within its cracks. When she pulls her shirt over her head, I feel her wince, and a tear almost escapes my eyes. The look we share after doesn’t reveal the savage, but the girl who has grown up too soon in a world that deems her anything but human. She is an animal under their command, and they parade her as if it is something to be proud of than disgusted by.

  Outside she sits alone, away from her followers. Her legs cross as she stares off into space. I watch her hands shake as she holds them out in front of her; probably imagining the blood she has collected after her crusade with death. How can they live like this? Forced into cells and only given room to breathe hours before the beginning of the daily savage games. The air is polluted with the smoke of raw tobacco. It burns my chest in ways I have never experienced before. My body itches for a clean shower. The closest I’ve gotten to one is when I step beyond the waterfall.

  After the girl’s hand stops shaking, the life returns to her eyes. She gets up and looks at me.

  “What are you looking at?” She snarls.

  “I see you. You’re not as menacing as you think.”

  “What would you know, you don’t even know me. I’m a nobody, isn’t that right?” Her nails dig into her palms. The moderate breeze rustles her silver hair.

  “You’re somebody.” As I am a Princess, you are a hueman worthy of life’s blessings, not man’s twisted games.

  She laughs and brushes her thin shoulders against mine as she walks back into the prison house.

  “We should go.” Myah slithers up behind me, touching my arm. I follow her gaze and watch a shadow step out from behind a building. The tallest of them all, it looks out of place in this filthy world. He steps into the streetlight, the litter scurrying away from his pointed shoes. His hand slips into his trouser pocket while the other ruffles his neck-length straight hair. He must have felt my gaze because he turns around with swiftness and begins to walk in my direction. His feet seem too light for the ground almost as if he is walking on water or merely levitating. When he finally stops, he cocks his head, fingering his full beard. I wonder what he is thinking. Can he see me? Fear settles in my chest; he has a familiar face. I recognise him from the slash that carries itself vertically across both his eyes. His skin looks entirely drained of blood. I’ve heard stories of him. Most notably, from the Civil War.

  “We need to…” Myah tugs on my arm once more.

  He’s the Kutawala - the coloniser who lead the invasion into Acirfa. My chest tightens even more. Memories of the story come flooding back. How he ruthlessly murdered thousands of Genapians without mercy, or compassion. The deadly bombs they used to disintegrate the plants and purge the land with their monstrosity. He is the one who now enslave the Sixth Dynasty. The one, who at the time, took down the Five Kingdoms with the element of surprise.

  The Devil his people marvel at.

  “Speak less than you know, have more than you show.”

  - Shakespeare

  9

  Caught in the act

  {Dakarai}

  Earlier I receive an urgent call from my Lieutenant. I was to come in immediately. The seriousness of his tone indicate terrible news was most probably on the way. As I drive to the office, in Gipsy Hill, I can’t help but wonder what I have done. So far, I’ve managed to keep my identity a secret and by the way my intelligence mates have been interacting with me, I’ve gained their trust as well as their friendship. My strategy has worked. They see that I’m all for peace, my experience has always preceded me.

  Once I enter the office, I feel a tingling sensation in the palm of my hands. I’ve never been in trouble before, I’ve always been somewhat of a perfect student. I never seek trouble, and trouble never finds me. Anyone who participates in unruly behaviour I distance myself from. The look in Lieutenant Johnson’s eyes is one I have often witnessed in my trainer’s eyes when he disciplines his disobedient students.

  “Come in, come in.” I know he is trying to sound light-hearted, it’s not working, I’m feeling anxious.

  “What’s up Lieutenant, is everything alright?” I ask as I slip into a chair opposite his desk. He flicks his blinds close before settling in his chair. His fingers tap away at his computer before he pivots his screen to face me.

  “As a matter of fact, no. This showed up on my desk earlier today.” He viciously scratches at his cleanly-shaven jaw.

  “At first I couldn’t make sense of it…I think it’s best if you see for yourself.”

  I swallow. A video comes to life on his screen. The tickling sensation in my palm moves to spread throughout my whole hand. CCTV had caught shots of Khari and my encounter with the Messenger and Sarah. The weird magical element is missing, though. I remember it’s Earth, and the Tech couldn’t pick that up. It looked like Sarah naturally died with a bullet to her neck. The video becomes disrupted after she falls.

  “Now I visited the scene myself to keep this all under wraps, to my surprise there was no body, no blood. So I would like you to choose your next words carefully.”

  “Sir, I don’t know what to make of this.”

  “Were you there that night Thursday 29th October 9:40PM?”

  “Sir…”

  “Michael…”

  “Yes.”

  “Where is the body?” His skin flushes red, and he rubs his eyes. I am one of his best detectives, I know he respects me. But I know also that I have to choose my words carefully, not for his sake, but mine.

  “I’m not sure. I went after the attacker, and when I returned, her body was gone.”

  He sighs. “Who’s the other guy with you?”

  “I don’t know; he was the one who called it in, I believe, Sir.”

  The Lieutenant shakes his head. “You’re not telling me the whole truth, Michael.”

  “Lieutenant, I know how this looks, but just give me a chance to gather some evidence to clear this thing up.”

  “I’m not so sure about that Michael. The scene is completely wiped. You never called in the murder. You never filed a report, and in doing so, you’re looking like a potential suspect or accomplice. You’re sitting here lying…”

  A suspect? An accomplice? I clench my jaw. This can’t be happening. “Sir…” I can barely get a word in. I can predict what he is going to say next. My shoulders begin to slump as I realise the inevitable.

  “Look Michael, I like you, I do…but this looks bad. Very bad.”

  “I understand that. But I’m the best person you’ve got to help solve this.”

  “How am I supposed to believe that when you won’t even level with me.” H
e gets up from his desk and begins to pace. “Look I’m sorry, it’s my badge that’s also on the line. You’re my detective in my unit, either I take care of this, or my bosses do. Since you find it difficult to trust me…I’m afraid I have no choice but to suspend you until further notice.”

  “Are you serious?” I search his eyes for any indication that he is bluffing. There is none.

  “If word of this gets out, it would have a bad effect on our unit. Hell, they will start to suspect we are dirty. Imagine what that would look like on my reputation if I let this slide. I’m sorry mate, but I’m going to need your badge.”

  Slowly I remove, then hand him the badge. My cover isn’t blown but it is compromised. I walk from the office. There’s a hush outside, as if the entire unit have been holding their breath. I quickly walk on by, but I know this won’t be the last time I set foot in this station- badge or no badge.

  “Intoxicated with madness, I am in love with my sadness.”

  10

  Compassion for the unfortunate

  {Calista}

  I wake up to a searing pain in my eyes. Massaging my temples doesn’t seem to help. I’ve had migraines before, often around a large group of people, but the intensity of this one is one I’ve never experienced before. I almost want to bash my head against a wall just to stop the ticking and to slip into unconsciousness, where they cannot find me. My breathing is ragged, and my hands are shaking uncontrollably. More than anything I wish to be still, in a place of serenity and silence. Although no one is physically around me, I hear their voices. They creep out of the walls, through the gaps in the flooring, like ghosts they walk through me. My body shivers with their coldness, lack of empathy and emotion. I feel my heart get heavy. I can’t breathe. I want to, but something is blocking me.