28 News of upheaval

A month later, Jide had settled in to life within the Abacha clan with his regular routine of recording his visions and practice his sword technique. His spar with elder Ladidi had been exciting because she was a lighting element internal mage with an ability called instantaneous which just meant she was ridiculously fast and with her skill even his instant sync was not enough to overcome the constant pressure.

Meanwhile, Musa had developed a new skill he called shadow clones whereby he infused darkness energy into his shadow in order to make a physical clone that could be used in battle and as a distraction. He was also working on having the darkness essence around him absorb heat when using the darkness cloak so elder Usman was finding it an impossible task to handle Musa.

It seemed that Hafis was sulking or skimming but no one paid him much attention. This all changed when the last H'assassin returned from her mission. She had rushed to notify the clan head about news she had gotten outside immediately she returned. On hearing the news, the clan head called for a meeting of the elders and all the H'assassins. He had also extended an invitation to Jide.

Musa was glad to meet this particular member of the clan in the context of an official call as he was dreading her reaction. Turayo was not just the last H'assassin but was also the only remaining relative of Musa's beside Hafis. There had been triplet girls born into the clan more than 60 years ago with one of them being a H'assassin and refusing to marry. The other two had had a falling out because of the same man, Musa's legitimate father. This was the cause of Hafis resentment because he was a bastard of the same man as his irrational mother had pretended to be Musa's mother and instigated Musa's father to sleep with her with aphrodisiacs and drugs. There was more to the story as Hafis' mother, in her jealousy, had ended up killing her own sister while Musa's father was on a mission and when the truth came to light, Hafis' mother was executed.

Hafis had been raised nonchalantly by Turayo while Musa was raised by his father. It would appear that Hafis had suffered some subtle abandonment as Turayo preferred Musa. However, Musa could just imagine her emotions when she finds out the Musa had abandoned the clan and only returned now he was different. It would not even surprise him if she had grown closer to Hafis over the years of his absence due to loneliness or guilt.

...

Turayo was in shock.

She could not listen to the clan head as he communicated the news of the new developments in the Republic of Maidugri. She had been informed by the clan head before the meeting started that her nephew, Musa, was still alive and back in the clan.

She felt so many emotions; relief, betrayal, anger, guilt.

She tried not to stare at him but she could not focus on any other thing, not even the stranger that was allowed into the council meeting.

But suddenly, the stranger seemed to become agitated, drawing her attention, and after freezing for a few minutes, he then glared at Hafis.

...

Jide had been invited to a conference in the throne room of the Abacha clan but, as they were on their way, he noticed that Musa seemed reluctant to attend. He had tried to ask Musa why but Musa had refused to talk about it. However, when he got inside and saw the additional member to the council he began to link visions he had seen before and some light was shed on Musa's situation.

To help ease his friend's concern, after hearing the major substance of the meeting and while the council was deliberating on what action to take in the event that the upheaval extended towards their backyard, Jide decided to view a far sight vision.

Jide channeled his time energy while regulating his breathing to fall into a trance.

At first he saw more blurry battle visions, a castle with Nnenna beside a man that looked like him and a mountainous retreat but soon a clear vision of Hafis shaking hands with Nze jolted him awake.

He stared at Hafis hatefully immediately he got his focus and wished he had killed him in the spar. He was going to tell Musa so he would be cautious but he knew that just a handshake meant nothing. So he resolved to pay extra attention to Hafis.

...

Danjuma approached Nze and said to him, "We already have control of the Republic on Maidugri and now the new orders from master are to travel to other surrounding Kingdoms to recruit more mages while he stabilises the Kingdom. This is the perfect time to investigate the Abacha clan. Their territory is not so far from us."

"It is at the border of the area master wants us to cover." Nze replied.

"Come on Nze...you of all people have a score to settle. And I still want a chance to tame that magical beast." Danjuma persuaded.

"But just two of us won't be able to take on a clan." Nze disputed

"We are just going to look and get information...we don't even know what the situation is like. Plus we could find more recruits along the way and may even find an opportune moment. He he he. After all we have to be cautious, know external mage is easy meat and may be a future hindrance to master's plans." Danjuma smiled as he said this as he knew that Nze would not be able to refute this argument.

Nze deliberated for a while but ultimately agreed with Danjuma so they altered the plan of their course.

...

Nnenna was oblivious to the uproar they had caused in Oshodi Kingdom but as luck would have it they decided to avoid major cities and stuck more to the wilderness and only Amaka or Nnenna would enter small towns to but necessities. At present, they were close to the site of Obi's former sect but would have to pass close to a major city. So they were not even aware of the risk they were taking.