43 Darkness
Musa woke up to darkness.
At first he was not sure he was even awake.
It was only the sounds in the room which he could not clearly identify but which seemed different from the fugue state he had been in that made him realise he had gain consciousness.
However, what made him sure he was conscious again was the strong, debilitating sense of loss coming from his soul.
Niyi was gone.
And so forever more he would be alone in the dark.
When that thought came to him and given his current state, he lost consciousness again.
...
The sound voices came to him again in the darkness.
He recognised one of them as Aunt Turayo's. He had delved so deep into the darkness that it sounded like a whisper. He could hear the anxiety and worry in the voice and realised that he had actually been dying. His grief and the loss of part of his soul had almost made him give up. In fact, if it had been anybody else's voice that he heard, it would not have registered but he could not abandon this voice again.
He was no longer a coward.
But it was hard trying to struggle away from the darkness towards the voice. In fact, it was impossible.
So he embraced the darkness, synergised it with his dark essence and reached out to all the dark energy around him.
...
Turayo was dejected.
She could not even examine her grief from the fall of her clan or the betrayal of her nephew who she supported. Rather, she was stuck looking at her other nephew and clan head wasting away. His vitals had been stable while they were escaping so initially she was not worried. However one day as she had return from getting supplies, she been approached by one of the guards watching Musa that his condition was deteriorating.
Luckily they were on the outskirt of a major city a long way from their nation so they had kidnapped a doctor to see to him. However, the doctor could only stabilise his condition briefly and claimed there was nothing more he could do with his skills.
Turayo had subsequently rushed to the capital of the country they were in and convinced a prominent physician there to follower her back through some of the treasures they had been stored at the cave and a bit of force.
Currently, she was threatening this doctor who said it was already to late as she had nothing to lose and had lost hope.
Suddenly, a dark whirlpool of energy centered on Musa and expanded outwards quickly.
In an instant it enveloped everyone in the room and continued expanding. Soon the cottage in the woods they were staying out was surrounded but the whirlpool showed no signs of stopping its expansion and the intensity of the energy suction increased.
Turayo felt like all sensation had been swallowed as soon as the darkness covered her such that she was left in the abyss alone, only as a frozen consciousness.
...
Nnenna had the ingenious idea to teleport the surviving members of the Seun's team to different locations a long distance away before escaping with her group. She was fine with killing people in battle as she was no long a small town girl but could not bring herself to do so in cold blood. Therefore, she felt that as long as they were sent faraway they won't be a problem. She could only do so with the help of Kayto as neither of them had the power to do so alone. She had to link to points in space to create a portal and most of it energy and positioning was from Kayto with her directing. She sent Seun first as she wanted to use a lot of power to send him the furthest without killing him and even neither to rest after he was gone.
Seun had only looked at her with a promise of revenge before disappearing through the portal.
After the rest of them had been sent along, Amaka, holding on to Amina's hand, asked Nnenna, "So where to next? Are we still heading for the Capital? A lot of people are looking for us for different reasons and things are just going to get more dangerous. I know you want to find your friend and get revenge for your family but I have been thinking, what guarantee do we have that his father will even help him...after all he abandoned him before." Obi also shared the same concerns so paid attention.
"Don't worry Amaka. I am the guarantee. Nothing and no one can stop me from coming or going as I please and any organisation would be lucky to have me. I didn't pick Jide's father only because he is his dad. But because it is the strongest country neighbouring mine and has a 'legitimate' reason to interfere. I don't think those people who came to Mushin are as simple as they seem and it won't be easy to find them. Also from what the survivors said one of them is already like me. At first, I knew nothing about Knights or Warriors and was only rushing to the only sign of hope as quickly as possible. Thank God I meet master. All I intend to do is tell Jide's father about Jide and I and assure him that if he wants my services he must find Jide and get revenge for me. So yes, we are still going to the capital now that Obi has found out about the Sabi Sect, then we will return to master and wait for news." Nnenna responded, sharing more of her plan.
At this point, Tunde, who had been sitting alone, approached them without any persuasion and asked, "Can I join you? I can be useful."
