22 The rising threat

Two days after Musa had left for his clan, Jide had just finished looking through his notes where he recorded his visions, when two figures stepped out of the shadows and approached the door of his room in the Warrior's Hut. One of them reached for their throwing knives but the taller one stopped this action and proceeded to knock on the door.

Jide walked up to his door with his greatsword sheathed on his back and said, "Come in its open, I have been expecting you."

....

It had already been a week since, Nnenna and the others had been in the border city of Oshodi Kingdom. During this period, the group had been allowed to move around the city albeit with an escort, however they had still gotten a lot of information about the Oshodi Kingdom.

King Fola Bamibola, the ruler of Oshodi Kingdom, had just fought off an invasion by the Obosi Empire, a nation to the southeast, and the country was currently recovering from the destruction, loss of lives and military expenses. Nnenna was a bit apprehensive if the King would be willing to help out when he had his own issues to resolve but she suspected that the Bamibola line would treasure Jide since he is an internal mage.

Unfortunately, they had not been able to find out any information about Obi and Nkeiru's old sect as they had to be careful with their inquiries and they were still at the border which was far from the news hub of the central cities and capital.

Luckily for them, Amaka had been able to find an old map of the Oshodi Kingdom that included the location of nearby landmarks so Obi, thanks to instruction from Nkeiru, was able to give a rough direction of where his sect used to be, which happened to be on their route.

Since it was on the way to the capital, Nnenna insisted they take a slight detour to investigate the whereabouts of any other survivors before addressing her mission.

By now Amaka and Obi knew that Nnenna was aiming for the capital to be able to meet the royal family to ask for help in finding her friend. In addition, they knew her friend was the son of the king but Nnenna had not told anyone he was an internal mage as well. In fact, Nnenna had still not told her friends about her ability not to mention that Jide had one of the mysterious spheres that she found in the underground chamber in the ruins near Mushin. But now she was considering revealing her ability as a means to escape.

...

Nze and Danjuma stood before the door waiting, or at least Nze was waiting patiently but Danjuma was ready to throw a fit 8n his excited and couldn't help grubbing his weapons.

Suddenly, the door was pushed open and they saw Osaze's bulky frame blocking the doorway.

Further in the room was a woman in a red and black body hugging leather outfit with a barbed wipe at her waist as well as two men in similar chain mail armour who even looked alike and finally a familiar old man with scars all over his body who was surrounded by the misty outline of a massive horned serpent.

"Master" Nze said to the old man "We have contacted all the other families, clans and sects in the Republic of Maidugri who have internal Mages, they are willing to come for the meeting..."

However, Danjuma interrupted him saying, "That is not what is most important...I have finally found out where the dagger is from...it belongs to the Abacha clan located..."

"Danjuma! We will sort out personal vendettas in due time. But you know that by now the opportunity to become an external Mage is probably gone. Therefore, control yourself. We will do things step by step. This meeting is more important. Remember we are building an army of mages, here in this isolated Republic, to be able to conquer other nations and build our empire. By then we will be able to crush any clan and then I will have my revenge. "

...

Jide saw the door open to reveal Abdul and Ladi who had been sent by the Abacha clan to retrieve him on Musa's insistence.

When Abdul entered the room, he noticed that all of Jide and Musa's belongings had already been parked up and the room was as tidy as if they had just moved in.

However, he only figured that Jide liked things in order and never suspected that Jide had been waiting for them.

"What do you mean you have been expecting us? As if we had been making you wait...we are taking you to the clan which it is a privilege for you because we don't allow outsiders to go to our clan's headquarter." Ladi complained but Jide just ignored her.

As Ladi stopped talking on seeing his reaction, Jide grabbed his bag and indicated for Abdul to carry Musa's, then said, "lead the way."

"Actually you will be going there blindfolded but still do try to keep up." Ladi mocked but Jide only smiled in response.

Soon Jide, Ladi and Abdul set off for the Abacha clan's hideout.

...

Just when Nnenna was fed up with waiting, Commander Oge came to their lodging at the inn near the headquarters, where the commander had insisted they wait, in order to notify them that their documentation checked out, so they were free to go.

"Thank you commander for your hospitality" Amaka said sarcastically as their group left their inn for the gate leading into the Oshodi Kingdom.

Oge, accompanied by a retinue of soldiers, followed behind them and ignoring Amaka's tone, replied subtly, "It was our pleasure, please enjoy your stay in our Kingdom."

...

As they had discovered all they could in this border city, Nnenna's party proceeded out of the main gate, following the major road that led towards the capital. However unknown to them, a team of black cloaked secret corps led by a Knight captain followed after them.